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Det moderna krigets janusansikte

Ördén Johansson, Hedvig LU (2013) STVK02 20122
Department of Political Science
Abstract (Swedish)
The aim of this essay is to understand the War on Terror, specifically Obama’s drone war and the torture at Abu Ghraib, through the lens of The Second Discourse (1754) by Jean Jacque Rousseau. In the process I shed new light on Rousseau’s work. Throughout the text, I argue that the War on Terror is characterised by temporal ambiguities and, furthermore, that these ambiguities can be traced to the modern understanding of sovereignty per se. Obama’s high-tech warfare, like Rousseau’s ideal civilization, can thus be regarded as rational progression towards the future. Meanwhile, the torture at Abu Ghraib, read through The Second Discourse, becomes an irrational hope of returning to the ontological origins of humanity and a pre-modern... (More)
The aim of this essay is to understand the War on Terror, specifically Obama’s drone war and the torture at Abu Ghraib, through the lens of The Second Discourse (1754) by Jean Jacque Rousseau. In the process I shed new light on Rousseau’s work. Throughout the text, I argue that the War on Terror is characterised by temporal ambiguities and, furthermore, that these ambiguities can be traced to the modern understanding of sovereignty per se. Obama’s high-tech warfare, like Rousseau’s ideal civilization, can thus be regarded as rational progression towards the future. Meanwhile, the torture at Abu Ghraib, read through The Second Discourse, becomes an irrational hope of returning to the ontological origins of humanity and a pre-modern temporality of the bodily grotesque. Understood this way, both paths presented by Rousseau lead to a politics devoid of humanity. While Obama’s professional high-tech warfare results in instrumentality devoid of substance the torture at Abu Ghraib becomes “power for the sake of power.” (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Ördén Johansson, Hedvig LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK02 20122
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Rousseau, drönare, tortyr, Abu Ghraib, kropp, krig mot terrorismen, rationalitet, modernitet
language
Swedish
id
3349482
date added to LUP
2013-02-05 14:32:33
date last changed
2013-02-05 14:32:33
@misc{3349482,
  abstract     = {{The aim of this essay is to understand the War on Terror, specifically Obama’s drone war and the torture at Abu Ghraib, through the lens of The Second Discourse (1754) by Jean Jacque Rousseau. In the process I shed new light on Rousseau’s work. Throughout the text, I argue that the War on Terror is characterised by temporal ambiguities and, furthermore, that these ambiguities can be traced to the modern understanding of sovereignty per se. Obama’s high-tech warfare, like Rousseau’s ideal civilization, can thus be regarded as rational progression towards the future. Meanwhile, the torture at Abu Ghraib, read through The Second Discourse, becomes an irrational hope of returning to the ontological origins of humanity and a pre-modern temporality of the bodily grotesque. Understood this way, both paths presented by Rousseau lead to a politics devoid of humanity. While Obama’s professional high-tech warfare results in instrumentality devoid of substance the torture at Abu Ghraib becomes “power for the sake of power.”}},
  author       = {{Ördén Johansson, Hedvig}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Det moderna krigets janusansikte}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}